Ahsoka's Masters
by Ralph E. Silvering
Summary: Ahsoka's first mission has been a long one. She's exhausted and overwhelmed and has no idea how to deal with her first taste of war. Luckily, her masters are there to help. Basically a story about how Ahsoka Tano learns she has two masters instead of one, and Anakin and Obi-Wan are their usual charming, bickering, infused with sexual tension selves. - post: The Clone Wars movie


Summary: Ahsoka's first mission has been a long one. She's exhausted and overwhelmed and has no idea how to deal with her first taste of war. Luckily, her masters are there to help. Basically a story about how Ahsoka Tano learns she has two masters instead of one, and Anakin and Obi-Wan are their usual charming, bickering, infused with sexual tension selves.

Notes: Takes place directly after The Clone Wars movie.

Ahsoka's Masters

Ahsoka hadn't been with Anakin Skywalker for long before she learned that he was definitely an unusual sort of Jedi. For one thing, there was his obsession with all things mechanical, including his deep friendship with Artooie, which was uncommon in a Jedi, particularly a Jedi General assigned to fighting the clankers. Then there was his utter disregard for any form of military protocol, the reckless stunts he pulled off just because he knew he could and because he believed he could save lives, the fact that he burned so brightly in the Force Ahsoka always knew where he was, the kindness he was filled with but which he only seemed to show as if it were a secret she couldn't tell, and his strangely radical political views.

Then there was his burning contempt for meditation.

Oh, and his complete and utter adoration of his own master, Master Obi-Wan.

And all that, Ahsoka learned just on their first mission alone. She and Anakin had finally gotten Stinky back to his father. Ahsoka was really going to miss the little guy, even if he was all slimy and heavy and definitely _stinky_. She wasn't going to miss Tatooine though, even if she still had to work out a way to get Anakin, or barring that, Master Obi-Wan or Artooie, to tell her something about her master's time on that dustball.

But she was tired, and she was glad her first mission as a Padawan, as _Anakin Skywalker's_ Padawan, was over.

It felt like she'd been going non-stop since the second she'd stepped off the LAAT/i on Christophsis and saw Master Obi-Wan, Anakin, Rex and Artoo waiting for her. She'd fought clankers and droidekas, crept behind enemy lines, invaded a monastery, narrowly avoided being decapitated by a Sith assassin, been involved in a space battle, survived a crash, trekked across a desert, engaged with MagnaGuards, and almost died at the hands of a Hutt crimelord.

Oh, and she'd almost gotten her Master killed several times.

She was definitely exhausted, and she had no idea what to think about everything that had happened. Or how to process it.

The dropship pulled into the hangar bay and the doors slid open. Instantly Ahsoka was assaulted by noise and light, loud voices shouting and calling and arguing. Engines echoed around the area, clashing with the clanking of clone boots on the shiny floors of the Republic warship, and beyond it call came the bone-shaking rumbling of the sublight engines and the constant announcements over the intercom.

Ahsoka winced. _Too much. It was all too much right now._

Master Obi-Wan touched the back of her hand and she almost startled. She must have been really tired if she hadn't noticed him coming up beside her. "I'm sorry, Master," she said quickly, internally wincing. Not a good first-mission impression to make on someone she hoped to impress, and someone who was so obviously beloved by her own master.

Obi-Wan's smile was kind and his eyes twinkled. "That's quite alright. You've had a busy day. A busy few days," he corrected himself, and she saw a faint hint of concern dart across his blue-green eyes. He stroked his auburn beard as he studied her for a brief moment, and then nodded over towards a spot on the hangar room floor which seemed to be out of the way of the hurrying clones and maintenance crew. "Come, little one. Perhaps we should meditate awhile before you head off to rest."

She felt Anakin coming up behind them, his presence like a thunderstorm rolling across the horizon, a distant promise of awesome power and danger and surprising beauty. "Or she could not," he said, sounding disgusted as he came up to face Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. His arms were crossed, and he felt filled with restless energy.

Master Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow and Anakin…. well, Ahsoka didn't want to say that her distinguished and powerful master _pouted_ , but he kind of did.

"Oh, come on, Obi-Wan. Meditating is _boring_." And now he was _definitely_ not whining. Ahsoka realized her eyes were slightly widened in surprise and hastily tried to school her expression to serenity, like she'd seen Master Ti do whenever someone in the creche asked her an impertinent question. "Snips just came off a 3-cycle mission. The last thing she wants to do is meditate. She should be getting some sleep."

Master Obi-Wan folded his arms across his chest and frowned. "And if she sleeps before processing all her thoughts and emotions from what happened, Anakin? If she doesn't find a way to organize them? She'll start having nightmares as her brain attempts to do it for her."

"Pfft," was Anakin's stellar argument. He waved a hand as though to brush aside Master Obi-Wan's concerns. "Meditating has never helped me work through anything," he said.

"That's because you don't practice."

"Well, maybe I would if it wasn't so _boring_."

"If you ever want to have a shared meditation session, like we did when you were younger, Anakin, all you need to do is ask."

They were facing each other now, identical expressions of stubbornness on their faces, Anakin's sky-blue eyes staring hotly into Master Obi-Wan's cool grey. Ahsoka looked through the small space which was all that separated their bodies and saw Captain Rex and Commander Cody watching the three of them from several dozen feet away. Captain Rex caught Ahsoka's gaze and he gave her a wry smile before rolling his eyes.

Ahsoka stifled a giggle and looked up at the two Jedi Generals, faces inches apart as they argued. She idly wondered what would happen if one of them stumbled into the other. Would they hug? Would they kiss? Could she somehow manage to trip one of them, or Force shove them a bit?

"Well, whatever," Anakin said, talking right over Obi-Wan. "I don't have time to meditate. I have more important matters to attend to. And Snips doesn't have to meditate if she doesn't want to, either," he declared with finality. He turned and began to walk over towards Rex and Cody.

"Anakin!" Master Obi-Wan's voice was scandalized and reproving.

Ahsoka felt her master's instant regret and Master Obi-Wan obviously felt it too, for he softened his tone. "Don't you think that's a bit unwise?" he asked gently.

Anakin didn't turn back towards them. He waved another negligent hand. "Fine, whatever. Ahsoka, do what Obi-Wan tells you. He knows what he's doing." And that actually sounded like sincerity, with a somewhat backhanded compliment attached.

Anakin then moved over towards the two Clone commanders and began to converse with them in low tones, leaving his master and Padawan to their own devices.

Ahsoka looked up at the Jedi Master when Obi-Wan sighed. He looked simultaneously fond and exasperated as he continued to gaze after his former Padawan. There was something conflict in his Force presence, a sudden pull between warring desires. The intensity of it surprised her.

"Sometimes I just don't know what to do with him," he confessed to Ahsoka, sounding wry, before shooting her a sidelong look and winking at her, including her in on their close camaraderie, making her feel like she now shared responsibility with him for managing Anakin. A gift from the Force, not a burden or a chore, even if she had a feeling that near-constant exasperation and resignation was how Master Obi-Wan usually dealt with Anakin.

Ahsoka, to her surprise, giggled, before she felt slight shame at such a childlike response. But Master Obi-Wan's smile grew and he seemed happy that he'd made her laugh.

"Shall we try a bit of meditation?" Master Obi-Wan asked now. "We can stop whenever you want to get some rest."

She readily agreed, sitting next to him, legs folded under her and eyes closed as she placed her hands on her knees. The two Jedi faced the busy, industrious hubbub of the hangar bay, and Ahsoka fell into an easy trance, focusing on her breathing and just listening as the mechanics began the long, arduous process of repairing ships damaged over Christophsis and Teth.

She remained just in this moment, letting it all wash over her and carefully processing the sounds she heard: quiet conversations and the clink of metal tools against durasteel starship hulls, the backfiring of a set of sub-light engines, Artoo's cheerful beeping, the laughter of several men as someone fell off a ladder, Cody's voice raised in exasperation as he berated a bunch of Shinies.

It all just was. Neither good or bad.

And then she let the emotions come – the fear she'd felt, the sick adrenaline in her veins before her first ground engagement on Teth, the exhilaration as she'd jumped on that flying creature to escape Ventress, her shame at thinking Anakin as going to send her away, her relief when that Republic Senator managed to contact Jabba the Hutt right before he tried to execute her and Anakin, her sorrow at the death of all those Clones, her righteous fury at the traitorous droid, her need to impress Anakin, her fear that she wasn't good enough, wasn't ready, didn't belong here….

Master Obi-Wan's hand was warm on her shoulder, his voice soothing in her ear. "Stay in the moment," he reminded her. "Don't let the emotions swamp you. Acknowledge that they are there, but don't let them control you."

Ahsoka took a deep breath, centered herself to the feel of Master Obi-Wan next to her, to the feel of Anakin's nearby presence in the Force, and began again.

When she opened her eyes, fifteen minutes later or even an hour, the hangar bay was much as she'd left it. But Anakin was next to them now, his Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor pulled over right beside the two Jedi. He was on his back under its belly, wiring and metal innards pulled out and covering him as various things sparked, Artoo squawked worriedly from inside the cockpit, and Anakin cursed under his breath.

Ahsoka noticed that he felt calmer than before, his mind orderly as he focused on the problem before him – a simple problem which he could fix, she realized, unlike the chaos of combat. She also wondered, now that her mind felt clearer than earlier, whether he took comfort in Master Obi-Wan's soothing presence in the Force – and even hers – though he claimed to not believe in meditating.

Master Obi-Wan seemed to exude calm while meditating, his presence warm and golden like a hug or a blanket on a cold day, and deep and slow like the depths of the ocean. It had been so easy for Ahsoka to find him in the Force and re-center herself whenever she'd let herself get lost in emotion or reliving the past.

Ahsoka also began to see, now that she wasn't so overwhelmed with everything, how some of the clones would glance over at the three Jedi from time to time, and how they appeared to take a measure of relief from what they saw, before returning to their duties. Ahsoka had never before realized that the simple act of trying to find balance might cause others to find a little balance of their own in the process.

"Snips!"

Anakin was completely buried in wires now, and he was yelping where he was getting lightly singed from a frayed ending.

Ahsoka jumped to her feet. "Coming, Master," she said, and went to help Anakin solder circuit boards and flip switches and learn about the connectors which bridged the Delta to the hyperspace rings – which Anakin had somehow managed to damage in his last mission.

Master Obi-Wan went to see to the men, and if he occasionally came back to check on their progress and lightly tease Anakin for the mess he was making, Ahsoka realized that with each visit, Anakin's presence was growing calmer. And so was her own.

"Really, Anakin," Obi-Wan said on his tenth or twelfth visit, "I don't know how you manage it."

"Does he wreck every ship he flies?" Ahsoka wondered, slightly incredulous.

"I do not!" Anakin protested at the same time as Master Obi-Wan nodded sagely and said, "Yes."

Anakin growled at the amusement on Obi-Wan's face and the shock on Ahsoka's.

"It's not my fault, it's the ship's! They're too slow. They override my commands, and I never have enough time to modify them!"

Obi-Wan looked unimpressed. "Well Anakin, you can certainly inform the Council of your reasoning next time you explain to them how you managed to destroy _six_ requisitioned Temple ships during the course of a single mission."

"Six?!" Ahsoka gasped.

"Kriff the Council," Anakin said under his breath, earning an admonishing look from his master, who automatically handed him a hydrospanner when he held out a hand from under the Delta.

"I'm not sure you would enjoy that," Master Obi-Wan said mildly, and Ahsoka couldn't believe her ears – Master Obi-Wan looked so _proper_ – while a choking noise came from under the ship.

Artoo cackled.

"Go away, Obi-Wan," Anakin announced with dignity. "You're no help here. You wouldn't understand as you're not a pilot," he pronounced grandly, ruining it slightly when he muttered to Ahsoka out of the corner of his mouth, "It was only _five_ ships, and we caught the barves in the end."

Ahsoka shook her head in amazement, but she was smiling.

When she finally wandered off to find her bunk and take a shower, she realized that she felt better. Not perfect, but better.

And if later, when she wandered down to the mess hall to find a drink of something warm, she saw Master Obi-Wan and Anakin meditating while facing one another, hands and fingers entwined and so close together that they must have felt each other's breath passing back and forth, she didn't even wonder at it.

Anakin finally felt calm.

She didn't interrupt them but as she tip-toed back across the deserted, darkened common area, she saw Master Obi-Wan open up a single eye and meet her gaze. He winked again and Ahsoka had to duck out of the room before she laughed, and Anakin tried to murder her.

She had a feeling that she'd somehow ended up with two masters instead of one, and she felt joy at the thought of the future, at the unexpected realization that whatever would happen, they would face it together, that they both wanted her here, with them, and that nothing would ever be boring as long as they were around.

She took the image of the two of them, so different and yet somehow fitting together perfectly, all the way back to her room, and fell into peaceful sleep.

The End

End Notes: I don't know. This scene of Obi-Wan and Ahsoka meditating, while Anakin works on his Delta next to them popped into my head today and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. What did you think?


End file.
